- Ian Wright was incensed when he was shown a red card against Leeds in 1999
- The striker recalls smashing up the referee’s changing room in a huge outburst
- What is the WORST Premier League hat-trick? – Find out on It’s All Coming Up
Ian Wright has opened up on the time when he broke into the referee’s room and ‘smashed it to bits’ after believing he had been wrongly sent off.
The former striker was sent off for West Ham playing against Leeds in 1999, a game the Hammers went on to lose 5-1.
Wright was sent off with a second yellow 16 minutes into the game after the referee thought he had fouled Ian Harte.
He told the Stick to Football podcast: ‘I got sent-off against Leeds for West Ham. It was Ian Harte, I didn’t catch him with the challenge, I know I didn’t catch him but he went over and was rolling.
‘It was one of those when you see someone see the red card and they look surprised.
Ian Wright has opened up about the time he stormed into the referee’s changing room and ‘smashed it to bits’
About the outburst, he said: ‘I felt so wronged that I lost all emotion. I lost all my composure’
Wright, shown playing against Southampton, played for West Ham during the 1998-99 season
‘I felt so wronged that I lost all emotion. I lost all my composure and I started effing and blinding with him then I did the thing that you just don’t do – chasing the ref to try and talk to the ref.
‘I had two or three players stopping me, so because I couldn’t get to him, I’m walking off and you’d think that was it but then I kicked the referee’s door in and smashed the room to bits. That was the emotion.’
Wright continued: ‘I felt so wronged by the situation. The only thing I remember is coming back out after smashing the room to bits.
‘I kicked the door in and you’d think that would have been it. But I went in, threw all their gear in the bath, threw the television against the wall and then, as I walked out, David Elleray was coming the other way.
‘I didn’t even take my kit off – I just took my gear off the peg and drove home. Then Harry Redknapp called me and said: “What the effing hell has gone on?”
‘I think I got fined about £18,000 for that.’
He didn’t just face a hefty fine. Wright was banned for the next three games, though there were only two left to play that season.
He missed a 6-0 battering at Everton and then a 4-0 win as West Ham battled to fifth in the Premier League, their second-best placing ever in England’s top flight.
